Iter Crucis

Gee, THANKS, "Mr. Latin"!

2010-01-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

I failed to recall that one of those 6th grade teachers is proficient in Latin! I am grateful for his gentle correction. Hence, we now have a more grammatically precise Latin blog title: iter crucis. Thanks, Joe! Agite Latine!

Reason to Blog #197

2010-01-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

There are loads of reasons why blogging is a great idea. If you're a pastor, a must-read is this from the Desiring God (John Piper) gang.

I will not bore you with all the reasons I am committed to blogging, but I want to give one:

Even if no one out there ever becomes a "follower" or moderately regular reader of what I write, I will have a form of written legacy for my wife and children -- a window into the spiritual and theological heart of their dad/husband. They will see, hopefully, how Jesus took a lump of crud and made it into His image by His indescribably wonderful atoning work on the cross. Gospel. Grace. Can there be any two words that are more. . . well, there are no words. Just quiet tears of gratitude.

Happy New Year and 6th Grade Teachers

2010-01-01T09:34:00.001-08:00

I have one older brother, two sisters, and two wonderful parents. They all love Jesus and, my siblings at least, are natural born comedians. I'll let you imagine how much fun our New Year's celebration was last night. A surefire way to get me to the edge of needing EMT intervention is to reflect on our days in a small private (Christian) school in Greenville, South Carolina. Last night, I nearly needed the 911 call.

But since many of those hilarious stories are of the "you had to be there" type, I will spare any would-be readers of this fledgeling blog. However, I will tie in memories of a couple of my favorite faculty members by way of introducing a providential event that occurred in the last couple of days.

THANKS for the kind responses via email to this blog! Would you not think it strange that two of the handful of responders were both 6th grade teachers of mine (in my crazy-fun Christian school)? No lie. Both "Joe" and "Molly" had profound influences on me. I remember being mesmerized by Joe's love of the Word of God. God used him to propel in me an interest in scriptural things that persists to this day. Molly, like Joe, knew how to deal with a wacko ADHD-ridden boy (although no one threw around the term in those days) and their grace-laden approach toward me in those days benefits me, I'm sure in many ways, even now.

Molly and I have had a terrific exchange via Facebook email regarding the topic of my first post. She sent me an article by the eminent Gordon-Conwell theologian, David Wells, which amazingly reflects where God has brought my mind in recent times with respect to the topic I addressed yesterday. Please allow yourself the benefit of printing and pondering the following:

Wells Article

Happy 2010! Thank you, Joe and Molly!

2009-12-30T14:19:00.001-08:00

Church Hermitology

Several years ago I had a friend named Donnie who had a sense of humor that rated in the top 5 of people I’d ever met. Donnie was a superb church musician who wound up becoming the main worship guy at the mid-sized church we attended at the time. After his appointment, his parents suddenly started showing up on Sunday mornings. Since I had rarely seen them before their appearances, I asked Donnie where they had been. He simply replied, “Oh, they’re church hermits. They go wherever they want whenever they feel the urge.” Cracked me up.

“Church hopping” can become a disturbing pattern in the life of Christians, but how can it be defined? At what point does one morph into a “hermit” versus, say, a thoughtful, Spirit-led parishioner? When one changes churches every month? Every year? Every 4 years? Every decade? Moving out of a church should not be taken lightly, but vast numbers of evangelical churches are so loose on structure and discipline that most can come and go like they’re attending the local cineplex. Are there legitimate concerns from a scriptural basis that might compel a brother or sister to leave? To that question, most Bible-believing Christians would state unwaveringly, “Yes.” So, when it comes to when and how to leave, two books offer outstanding guidance: The Peacemaker by Ken Sande (www.hispeace.org) and Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll (relit.org/vintagechurch). This has become a very personal issue to me since my family and I are on a church hunt now -- which means we're leaving our current church. We've made our decision after exhausting all biblical avenues and after much prayer and counsel from trusted sources.

So now we come to where God would have us next. I just know there is a perfect church gathering out there somewhere! Having just stated the absurd, how does a believer decide which ministry is best to link up with when in search mode? I would like to offer some personal thoughts and guidelines in answer to that question.

I created a grid with several potential local church bodies as “candidates” for my family and me. (To help me in crystallizing my rationale for leaving our current ministry, I decided to judge it by the same criteria as though it were one of the new candidates.) I created the grid with each of the potential churches (and the most recent one) running down the left column. Then I supplied, in the form of headings, categories which are important to me (clearly, a personal set of criteria that are, in my bias, biblical). Some categories are more important than others, but the ideal church candidate would fit most criteria. Under each category I would supply a question mark, a check mark, or an “X” corresponding with the church ministry on the far left column. Here are my category headings in no particular order:

Prayer Soaked
Holy Spirit Sensitive (Desirous of the Spirit’s filling and empowerment and at least “open” to the so-called “miraculous” gifts)
Biblical (Word-based and strong on the expositional teaching of Scripture)
Reformed (“5 Solas” and “Doctrines of Grace” Centered)
Gospel focused (the Cross!) -- not marketing and methodology focused.
Socially aware and involved (care for the poor with a Gospel intentionality and not $$$/facilities focussed)
Missions minded (both local “missional” and international mindset)
Confessor baptizers
Accountability (not entirely independent, but not necessarily a heavily structured denominational network [PCA, e.g.])

Upon completion of my chart, I could clearly see the Spirit’s involvement in taking us out of our current church and, consequently, I felt much peace. It should be quite a trip as we now try to accurately fill in the blocks for the other candidates! Naturally it will mean many visits and casual discussions with leadership and members of the prospective ministries. Meanwhile, we are determined to leave where we are currently in a biblical way and in the love of Christ.

So, why would I author this post as my inaugural foray into the blogosphere? What relation does it have to the title of my blog? Well, initially, I intend to expand on the above “hermitology” criteria as a springboard. Trust me. . . it will, in time, make sense where I'm going with all this. I have quite a story to tell along with the insights and I hope all of it will be of help to my readers. God bless you on your own iter crucis!